On April 27, 1986, American electrical engineer and business owner John R. MacDougall, using the pseudonym Captain Midnight, jammed the Home Box Office (HBO) satellite signal on Galaxy 1 during a showing of the film The Falcon and the Snowman. He broadcast a message lasting four and a half minutes, protesting HBO's rates for satellite dish owners, which he considered too expensive. MacDougall was working at his second job as an operations engineer at the Central Florida Teleport uplink station in Ocala, Florida, and fought with a technician at HBO's communications center in Hauppauge, Long Island, for control of the transmission. The technician attempted to increase uplink power but gave up because of the risk of damaging the satellite. MacDougall eventually got scared and abandoned his control of the satellite.
Reviewer:redlion517
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October 19, 2022 Subject:
O captain, my captain!
I imagine the people watching this live back in 1986 felt a combination of fear and confusion. Fear from being startled by their film suddenly being interrupted by a burst of static, and confusion at who the hell this "Captain Midnight" person was and why he had such a problem with HBO's high prices.
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